How to Get Kids to Eat and Enjoy Diverse Meals
Getting kids to eat can sometimes feel like the hardest part of parenting. Nothing is more frustrating than trying, with every fiber of your physical and mental being, to simply provide the nourishment necessary for human survival, and then being fought, tooth and nail, at the suggestion that said nourishment be consumed. All the work that goes into shopping, prepping, cooking, and enthusiastically hyping up a plate of food, and it can all go up in smoke in a matter of minutes when placed in front of a moody toddler.
So how does a parent get a child to want to eat the food on his or her plate?
Start by getting your child invested in what they’re eating at its start.
Which is usually the grocery store or farmer’s market. Bringing kids shopping and letting them see and smell and touch the food you’ll be cooking for them brings them into the equation on a much deeper level.
Getting to choose, and hold, and explore the foods they will eat changes those foods, from objects presented objectively on a plate, into something they can get to know intimately (when they ask to hold it for the duration of the shopping trip). Giving your children choices will give them ownership over what they eat, and destinations like farmers’ markets will give them a plethora of choices: “So you want us to buy apples? Okay, which of these five kinds of apples tastes the most yummy to you?”
And while, yes, kids can sometimes be challenging in grocery stores, I’ve found that investing the trust in giving hem some autonomy often pays off.
As you encourage your “Food Explorer” to try new foods, or new varietals (“flavors”) of foods they know and love, help them articulate exactly what they like about their favorites, and why.
If you can get them talking about their preferences, you may also gain insight into other foods they may end up liking. Looking for key textures, flavors, tastes, even something as seemingly innocuous as packaging can make a difference between appealing and revolting to many kids. Better yet, encouraging them to discuss what they like and dislike helps your child build verbal skills, self-awareness, and critical thinking.
When it comes time to actually prepare the foods your child has chosen, delegate a task involved with that food to him or her.
When it comes time to actually prepare the foods your child has chosen, delegate a task involved with that food to him or her.
Washing, peeling, shucking, smashing, squeezing... sometimes I’ll even buy a little extra of something, knowing I’m going to give my daughter the job of preparing it, which I know will inevitably lead to a smidge more waste than usual. And at dinnertime, if your first attempt isn’t a smash hit, don’t get discouraged.
As a professional chef, I’ve learned that the best way to cook something isn’t always the first way you try. If steamed broccoli doesn’t land with your audience, maybe roasted with a bit of crisp on the edges will do the trick; maybe seared hard to get some browning and up the flavor; maybe you even start R&D on a house “fancy sauce” for dipping like we do. However you switch things up, stay strong and keep the faith. We all know how fast things change at these young ages— food preferences are no exception. Even when it seems like they don’t like anything you serve, and it feels like they never will, new experiences are always just around the corner.
By Johnny Gnall, Chef of Events at SingleThread
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